Sunday, November 25, 2007

Deep-V Sweater

When I first flipped through Erica Knight's Classic Knits I was more impressed by the beautiful styling and photos than the actual projects, they seemed almost too simple. But over the next few months I kept coming back to that book and started to fall in love with the projects in it, especially the Deep-V sweater. I've had a bag of Debbie Bliss' Cathay in my stash, which is the suggested yarn. All that stockinette didn't put me off, I wanted some mindless knitting for a change. Well, that pattern turned out be an absolute joy to knit. Cathay, despite being a bit splitty at first try, is wonderfully soft; it reminded me of melting vanilla ice cream. After a nice steam, any uneven knitting transformed into an even, drapey fabric. and check out the lovely decreases:Pattern: Deep-V Sweater, from Classic Knits by Erica Knight, second sizeYarn: 11 balls of Debbie Bliss CathayNeedles: US 5 (3.75mm)Mods: I used a tubular cast-on and knit in the round instead of separate pieces. If I were to knit this sweater again however, I'd knit it in pieces and seam it up (yes, me, the I-wanna-turning-everything into-seamless knitter). Why? Because you end up weaving in lose ends within the knitted fabric, and no matter how careful I was, you can see a slight indentation on the other side. When you have such a smooth fabric, seams provide a place to weave in your ends and keep the rest of the fabric looking perfect. Lesson learned. Sometimes, seams are good (argh).The only thing I would change is to make the sweater a size bigger. It fits great, it's just that when I started, I wanted something more fitted, something I could wear to the office and look professional. Now that I'm freelancing from home, I crave the casual lounge-around look that enticed me to the sweater in the first place. I guess I could always frog it....;-) Yeah, no way!I see more Classic knits projects in my future, the kelly cardi and maybe the slouchy socks, but right now, there is more stockinette going on, and a little bit of cabling. I'm making the Jana Tunic from Rowan Studio 3. There are no sleeves so this should be a quick knit.

I've added some more details of my mods to Flicca, you can find them here.

You always make well made, well styled sweaters! This one turned out so nice - it has that wonderful twist on a classic style! I'm another one who has the book and is going to pull it out to take another look-see! Inspiring :) Terry

That is one simply superb sweater, a real work of craft and art. I don't know about making it again one size larger... this one looks perfectly sized. Any bigger, the sweater might seem to be wearing you!

I love that sweater. The beauty is in the simplicity of the pattern. It almost looks store bought, but in our case, that would almost be an insult. I think it fits you perfect and goes with everything. 100 Points on my scale.

Thanks for the caveat about transforming this pattern for knitting in the round. I've already knit it flat in Jo Sharp DK Tweed as a gift, but was tempted to knit it in the round in Cathay for myself. Now I won't! It looks wonderful!

hi. i've been trying this v sweater for months. i'm on ravelry as venusspecimen. do you use ravelry? what is it? its the world of knitting, crochet, how to's, patterns, everything really. you may already know. anyhow, i'm wondering if you had any problems with the v part, from your finished item i'd guess not, its just i've struggled so many times to fathom what it means at the v neck part. its seems to me to be written so unnecessarily difficult. hohum. i've been long since meaning to frog mine and make something else but seeing yours has re inspired me that it is indeed possible to make. thanks. x